232 ELEMENTS OF SYLVICULTURE. 



pletely, (ii.) in bands, or (iii.) in patches. The 

 first method is that least practised. The implement 

 employed is either a plough or a hoe. The plough 

 can be used only where the ground is not covered 

 with large stones, and its slope is not too great. 

 Whenever its employment is possible, the plough is 

 to be preferred, because it requires a smaller outlay. 

 But the cultivation of the whole surface demands a 

 considerable quantity of seed ; it is also more diffi- 

 cult to distinguish failure from success, and the 

 repair of blanks is more laborious. 



Cultivation in bands is superior to this. It consists 

 in cultivating parallel strips of ground with the 

 plough or the hoe from one to two yards apart accord- 

 ing to the rapidity of growth, the angle of the slope and 

 the object in view, the intermediate strips being left 

 intact. The bands are given an average width of 

 about ten inches, and in a flat country they are 

 directed east and west, and care is taken to throw up 

 the earth on the southern side. In this manner the 

 seedlings are protected from drought during the first 

 year. On sloping ground the cultivated bands are 

 made narrower. Care is taken to level them in the 

 direction of their length, and it is even desirable to 

 give their width a gentle inclination downwards and 

 heap up turf and earth on the opposite side. Band 

 cultivation offers several important advantages ; 

 under any circumstances it requires less seed, al- 

 though proportionately to the surface cultivated, it 

 requires more than the first method. The vegetation 

 which presents itself on the intact bands serves as 

 protection against drought ; on the other hand, it 



